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S Is for Space

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Ray Bradbury's _S is for Space_ (1966) is a companion collection to _R is for Rocket_ (1962). I remember that there was mild critical disappointment when these collections first appeared. The problem was not with the quality of the stories-- which were quite good-- but over the fact that most of them were "recycled Bradbury". That is, they were tales that had been previously published in other collections. Nowadays, this doesn't seem to be an issue of great importance.

"The Pedestrian" is here, one of Bradbury's best. It's the short, tight little gem about the last pedestrian who one night encounters the last police car. The world of this story, with shadowy figures glued to their television sets, is the world of _Fahrenheit 451_ (1953). The story was first published in _The Reporter_, a news weekly that deserved a longer life than it had.

"Pillar of Fire" is a novelette length manic tribute to Edgar Alan Poe and fantastic Romanticism. A hate-filled madman rises from the dead and wreaks havoc on a rational, ordered, emotionless society. Ask yourself with whom you identify.

"The Man" is the one about the spaceship captain searching from planet to planet for the second coming of Christ. James Blish (1964) pointed out a theological flaw in the story. An omnipotent God could arrange for a second coming simultaneously on all planets without requiring His Messiah to travel from one planet to another by rocket. But I think that Bradbury's main point still stands: There will always be people who are looking for a grail over the next horizon.

There are two stories from _The Martian Chronicles_ (1950): "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed," about the Earth colonists who go native; and "The Million Year Picnic," about a family's encounter with the "new Martians" that closes the chronicles.

Bradbury has a love-hate relationship with flying machines, and this is demonstrated in two fables: "Icarus Montgolfier Wright" and "The Flying Machine". The first was made into an excellent short movie animated by Joseph Mugnaini and narrated by Ross Martin.

When I was in high school, a classmate of mine was nicknamed (for reasons that I have long since forgotten) The Fungus. When he entered a room, he would cheerfully say, "There's a fungus amungus". "Come Into My Cellar" is a story about fungi. They may be among us even now.

Other stories include "Crysalis," one of Bradbury's earliest solo stories (his very earliest pieces were colaborations); "Time in Thy Flight," a reflection of Bradbury's love of Halloween; "The Smile," a nod to Leonardo da Vinci and a savage attack against American anti-intellectualism; and "The Trolley," an exercise in nostalgia. Here in Chattanooga, there are still places where we have tracks where the old trolley cars used to run. Every so often, somebody talks about bringing them back. But so far, nothing much has come of it. Too expensive. The economy won't allow it. We'd have to raise taxes. Maybe next year, you betcha.

These are stories representing Bradbury at his best. Many of his later tales would have the style and the sentiment as these-- but not quite the same substance or sparkle.

_Reference_: Blish, James. "Cathedrals in Space". In _The Issue at Hand_. Chicago: Advent, 1964, 57-58.

I'll start with mentioning a couple forms of reading I sometimes do NOT like. I sometimes don't like short story collections that are written in a fashion requiring excessive reader "work" in constructing the environment. You figure out what's going on . . . and it's over and time to start the next story (I know this sounds lazy, but I do often read for relaxation). And, I sometimes do not enjoy science-fiction that is overly technical, or overwhelms me with bizarre foreign names, terms, and political systems. This book is none of the above.

This is a wonderful collection of easy reading and imaginative sci-fi short stories. Fit for readers of any age, it is the kind of stuff that makes one hunger for more science fiction (or more Ray Bradbury, anyway).

I found myself looking forward to the world to be found in each successive story, and certainly was saddened to reach the end of the short book.

There is a sister work, "R is for Rocket", which is more of the same good stuff.

I promise you'll enjoy this.

I believe that S is for Space is THE best book I have ever read. There are several short stories that are entertaining and easy to understand. Bradbury once again captures the human essence in a series of stories. This is a great book for beginners or even advanced readers.

I remember reading this book from cover to cover when I was a kid and I still love every story. Ray Bradbury always had a way to cross genres from Horror to Science Fiction so effortlessly. Zero Hour is the tale that made the most impact on me and I still re-visit the story and stories in this wonderful book today.

Viewed in the context of modern sci-fi, there's something almost childlike about Ray Bradbury's stories. They are so important and brilliant and fundamental that they've acquired the strength and power of fairy tales: something so central to the future development of narrative fiction that they MUST be reckoned with. "S is for Space" is my favorite of his collections, but they all have stories to make you smack your forehead from feelings of inadequacy.

"S is for Space" by Ray Bradbury, © 1966

This is a nice collection of stories. Like "Dandelion Wine," these are not 'science fiction' stories herein, or rather some are, some are not. It is interesting how he seems to use phrases that sound so elegant, but after reading different ones for the third or fourth time in different stories, you get to expect them and are not so interesting, more, "ho, hum, here's another."

'Chrysalis' - Poor Smith has become a chrysalis. Rockwell has been taking care of him and dimly understands what is happening. Hartley has been around, but is not happy about it. Smith scares him as some sort of unknown, or just something that could take over the world with out much trouble. In the end they are both right and Smith just goes somewhere else.

'Pillar of Fire' - This is the oddest story in this book. A fellow come back to life and goes on a killing spree because he can and it just makes him mad that in the future world he has come to, death is not a problem. Seemingly, people in this future world, are not bothered by dieing, nor by others dieing. No one gets upset that Lantry is killing any number of people for no good reason and wholesale at that. In the end he is barely found out, and reasonably, there being not much a society can do to punish a dead man, they just put back to being dead.

'Zero Hour' - The invasion is coming. The children are playing at something they do not understand. The parents get the idea too late.

'The Man' - Christ has come again to some other world. Captain Hart has landed on a new planet, looking for some business for his profit. He gets confused with who has been here before him, by a few days. He thought it was some competitor or other, but as they land later on dead or hurt, it could not have been them, so who had been there? He aims to find out somehow or other. Some of his crew decide to stay and he goes off. The oddest part is the civilized way he tries to get the information he wants, no torture or beatings, just questions and answers, and wailing that he is not getting anywhere. Than, when his crew abandons his ship, he just says, "Okay, bye."

'Time in Thy Flight' - A school trip gone bad. The kids travel back in time to 1928 and do not want to leave. Maybe improvement is not really an improvement.

'The Pedestrian' - Mr. Leonard Mead likes to go for walks, but he is the only one in this future world who does. He gets picked up by the automated cops for not being normal.

'Hail and Farewell' - Willie is an odd boy of twelve or so. He does not age. After staying for a couple, three years, folks start to talk and wonder about him. He moves on to another town, to another pair, or person, for parents who would like to have him as their own. He gives comfort and love to those who have not had their own children. They give him a place to stay.

'Invisible Boy' - Old Lady is a witch who can not do any tricks. Charlie is a little boy she would like to keep her company, but he wants to go home. He does get away, and she is sad.

'Come Into My Cellar' - An odd fungus is going to take over the world, maybe.

'The Million Year Picnic' - A fantasy of living on Mars. A young family takes a trip, actually the last trip made to Mars from Earth, for a picnic. But in the first couple of days there, the Earth becomes unreachable because of some war or cataclysm. They are stuck on Mars for the foreseeable future. This is no surprise to the parents. The children are amenable to staying, though they do wonder about what has happened to Earth. This is an odd story of hope and moving on and the destruction of the world.

'The Screaming Woman' - This is a detective story. A little girl hears a woman screaming from under ground. Apparently her father and anyone else around there does not hear the screaming as well, wrong time to be listening or something. She goes around to find out whose wife is missing and finds that out, but still no one is trying to help her get this screaming woman out of the ground. The last thing is the woman sings a song only this little girls dad knows. Finally, he goes to help her dig up the woman and solve the mystery.

'The Smile' - In the future, people will be mad about how the past has bought them to such a poor present and they take it out on remnants and artifacts from the past. They destroy what reminds them of a glorious past.

'Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed' - Another Mars settlement story. The settlers explore and live and become Martians. Eventually they 'channel' old Martian knowledge: names of places and things; and grow to look like Martians.

'The Trolley' - A nostalgic story of a trolley that was being replaced. The trolley picks up kids on the way to a picnic, to relive the days of old glory when people used the trolley to get to the park for holidays or weekend outings, on last time.

'The Flying Machine' - Military fear of new innovations in old China.

'Icarus Montgolfier Wright' - It is amazing what some people can get published. This is something that seems to be about flying, but it gets all wrapped up in one person who gives the story it's name.